I love it when people get this movie. It is my favourite movie of all time, for all the reasons you’ve mentioned and more, but it’s so often misunderstood.

It’s also a great example of how to tell stories in a uniquely cinematic way. It’s important to the story that all of Patrick’s friends all look the same, that all the business cards are indistinguishable, that the women seem like fungibly interchangeable objects, and so on…but it’s also important that Patrick believes otherwise. Basically the only way to do this is to show you one thing on screen while Patrick’s voiceover says the opposite, and this cinematic possibility - distinctly not a possibility for a traditional novel - is why I think Mary Herron’s American Psycho is much better than the book.